Everyone knows the best recycling systems are those created with input from organized citizens and small business, and validated through elected officials who support zero waste. Abdicating this power dooms communities to increasing use of wasteful packaging that is destined for disposal methods, such as landfilling and incineration that foul our environment and accelerate the loss of nature.

That’s why Scott Cassel’s May 25 commentary advocating for a system that turns waste management over to global corporations — like those funding Cassel’s Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) — is both inaccurate and illogical (“Hold the producers of waste accountable,” Star-Advertiser).

In British Columbia — the only jurisdiction with an extended producer responsibility (EPR) system like the one Cassel advocates — recycling has stagnated, while the producer responsibility organization (PRO) that runs the program as a monopoly has done quite well for itself. That’s created a costly way to keep recycling at the same levels as 15 years ago and displacing a preexisting bottle container deposit system that was equally, if not more, effective.

The industries responsible for the proliferation of packaging waste would rather provide tens of millions of dollars for cleanup after plastic pollution takes place than take steps to prevent that waste in the first place. Which is why House Bill 2399, drafted by state Sen. Laura Acasio and introduced by state Rep. Nicole Lowen as well, was far superior. The unique bill, which did not mandate a PRO and which was focused entirely on reuse, was designed to engage the world’s most profitable global corporations in a program to create a fund that would distribute grants to Hawaii counties and work with grassroots organizations to build the infrastructure for zero waste. No Hawaii-based producers would have been covered by the bill.

The idea that corporations that produce waste should pay to clean it up is undeniable and uncontroversial. The idea that they should be in charge of the funding and the structure of waste prevention systems is nonsense.

Corporate-controlled EPR turns the policy of “polluter pays” into a policy of “polluter controls.” This distortion is the result of Big Packaging and Big Soda pushing to give their policies the force of law in ways that take decision-making away from citizens. Their huge budgets for lobbying and public pressure campaigns are brought to bear when citizens push back, which is exactly what happened when HB 2399 got closer to final passage, and what is happening now when PSI seeks to prevent reintroduction of the measure.

Across the U.S., money is pouring into organizations like PSI, which are funded by the global incinerator and packaging behemoths. These Barons of the Earth fear localism for good reason. It threatens their plans for continued linear economics when the Earth is screaming for circularity.

Hawaii grassroots organizers saw through this ruse and created the first U.S. EPR bill with no PRO, designed to work to the advantage of its citizens in a way that engaged global corporations fairly. That PSI should assert false information in its effort to deny Hawaii citizens control of their waste- management decisions is malfeasance.

Big Packaging and Big Soda want no restrictions on packaging, and expect local and state governments to abdicate the rights of citizens. Big Incineration wants a continuous stream of new virgin plastic. The British Columbia bottle bill system is under attack. This is what PSI is offering the next generation of Hawaii’s citizens.

Lifetime zero waste advocates, like myself, lauded HB 2399 as legislation that fits Hawaii’s needs today and into the future. Hawaii should say yes to this groundbreaking, democratic and effective approach to EPR. Monopoly global corporations should not be dictating how Hawaii citizens manage their resources.

Neil Seldman directs the Recycling Cornucopia Project for Zero Waste USA; he directed the Waste to Wealth Initiative of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance for 48 years, and participated in the research for the Zero Waste Plan for Hawaii Island, 2021, for Recycle Hawaii.